Your "weather friend" obviously doesn't know anything about the weather. Even when the eye of a hurricane is just off the coast, we rarely get much rain in Columbia - this one is predicted to be hundreds of miles off the coast.

This is what he sent me from NHC Atlantic:
It is important to realize that a tropical cyclone is not a point. Their effects can span many hundreds of miles from the center. The area experiencing hurricane force (one-minute average wind speeds of at least 74 mph) and tropical storm force (one-minute average wind speeds of 39-73 mph) winds can extend well beyond the white areas shown enclosing the most likely track area of the center. If the cone shifts west towards Charleston or a point on the coast, Columbia could be on the outer edge of the hurricane and get possibly heavy rain. This has the strength to become a category 1 hurricane for now, more details tomorrow evening with track and how large the storm is. Luckily the gulf will be missed, not another Katrina and unless it gains serious strength it won't be anywhere near as damaging.

Lets hope for the storm to curve outward towards sea, not inward towards the coast!